To this day, many argue about how to relate to the work of Carlos Castaneda: how to fiction or how to anthropological research? If you accept the idea that everything described in the writer's books is true, and with the help of certain practices you can open your consciousness to enter parallel reality, then the world becomes completely different. The Art of Dreaming is a very important work in the writer's work. It contains a description of some effective sleep awareness practices.
The life path of Carlos Castaneda
Following the spiritual practice of “the spirit of a warrior,” which involves the complete erasure of personal history, Castaneda carefully veiled many parts of his biography. Even the year of his birth is not exactly known. Researchers of the writer's work note only the interval between 1925 and 1935, in which he was supposedly born. Castaneda was officially married for 15 years, however, after six months of marriage, he left his wife on his esoteric expeditions. Nobody knew more about his specific whereabouts. Another well-known fact is getting a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California at the 1960s.
But is the path of his physical body so important if he left the most important things in books?
Teachings of don juan
Whether the main character of Castaneda’s works actually existed is now difficult to find out, if not impossible. The life of the writer is shrouded in many secrets. For many years, he disappeared into the wilds of Mexico, studying the ancient shamanistic rites and closely communicating with a group of magicians, the main of which was the famous Don Juan. Many researchers believe that this is a collective image of several sorcerers.
If you isolate the mystical component from the teachings of Don Juan, you will get an excellent program for teaching anything. The path to mastering knowledge is difficult, requiring complete dedication and maximum immersion in the subject. Don Juan has a lot of insightful statements about how to overcome the fear of knowledge, how to learn how to use it and how to take obstacles to understanding it.
Immersion in this art is reflected in the books “The Teachings of Don Juan”, “Tales of Strength” by Castaneda. "The Art of Dreaming" is devoted to methods of controlling consciousness during sleep. This is an unusual book.
Carlos Castaneda "The Art of Dreaming"
The book is devoted to a detailed description of the practice of entering consciousness into other areas of perception through dreams. Don Juan called dreams the door to a parallel world, so different from ours and at the same time very similar to it. In this universe, a person can live peacefully and even die. When studying the art of dreaming, an important task is to master the ability to control your attention. As in everyday life, we involuntarily capture various events and objects, putting them back in our memory, and during sleep it is necessary to notice everything that throws us the subconscious mind. But the most important thing is to learn to do it consciously.
Can an ordinary person comprehend the art of dreaming?
This is perhaps the most burning issue that interests everyone who is interested in the esoteric philosophy of Mexican shamans. Despite fairly detailed descriptions of the practice of controlled sleep, mentions of the magical passes necessary for control are given in a very veiled form. The book "The Art of Dreaming" does not look much like a purely practical guide; this would be a clear contradiction to the philosophy of Don Juan. Indeed, according to his statements, direct answers give nothing until a person becomes open to understanding. And the one who has reached this point does not need any guidebooks. For knowledge is within us, we only need to let it open to us.